Product description

The Continuum Aesthetics Series looks at the aesthetic questions and issues raised by all major art forms. Stimulating, engaging and accessible, the series offers food for thought not only for students of aesthetics, but also for anyone with an interest in philosophy and the arts. Aesthetics and Music is a fresh and often provocative exploration of the key concepts and arguments in musical aesthetics. It draws on the rich heritage of the subject, while proposing distinctive new ways of thinking about music as an art form. The book looks at: The experience of listening Rhythm and musical movement What modernism has meant for musical aesthetics The relation of music to other 'sound arts' Improvisation and composition as well as more traditional issues in musical aesthetics such as absolute versus programme music and the question of musical formalism. Thinkers discussed range from Pythagoras and Plato to Kant, Nietzsche and Adorno. Areas of music covered include classical, popular and traditional music, and jazz. Aesthetics and Music makes an eloquent case for a humanistic, democratic and genuinely aesthetic conception of music and musical understanding.
Anyone interested in what contemporary philosophy has to say about music as an art form will find this thought-provoking and highly enjoyable book required reading.

Author information

Andrew Hamilton is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Durham, UK.

Review quote

'Hamilton's is a distinctive philosophical voice, and Aesthetics and Music is a lively and stimulating contribution to a number of important debates.' - British Journal of Aesthetics

Table of contents

1. Aesthetics and music in ancient Greece; 2. The concept of music; 3. The aesthetic of form, the aesthetic of expression, and "Absolute Music": Aesthetics of music in the late 18th and 19th centuries 4. The sound of music; 5. Rhythm and time; 6. Adorno and modernism: Music as autonomous and "social fact" 7. Improvisation and composition.